Functional Hearing Evaluation for Military Occupational Specialties

Mission readiness in the military depends on a soldier’s ability to perform a particular job or task safely and efficiently. Some military specialties require the soldier to perform hearing-critical tasks that may take place in noisy and distracting environments. Further, communication requirements vary widely across Military Occupational Specialties (MOS). However, the hearing ability of virtually all active-duty soldiers and trainees is currently assessed using existing audiology tools which rely primarily on standard auditory thresholds and do not take into account the specific nature of the task or environment. In Phase II, Creare proposes to complete development and testing of a portable Functional Hearing Assessment System which will determine: (1) if an individual meets hearing-critical measures sufficient to be assigned to or remain in a particular job, and (2) if hearing aids or hearing protection affect hearing-related MOS requirements. Our system includes several hearing tests including: speech intelligibility in noise; sound localization and detection; and automated thresholds with specific pass/fail criteria and tests tailored for each MOS. We will also develop a systematic approach to identify hearing-critical tasks, set performance parameters for these tasks, and relate functional hearing ability to scores on customized hearing tests.